Eight Common Profiles of a Bust

1. The “Overrated College Star” - He repeatedly carried his team to the NCAA tournament, was a unanimous selection to the All-American team, and he can't dribble with his left hand. WHAT? In every draft there are a few college players with all the accolades and awards that just can't make the transition from great college player to great NBA player.

What’s the problem here? Maybe it was merely the program and the amazing surrounding talent that enabled this average player to look like a future star. Maybe it was the fact that he played against a bunch hacks that will be signed up on RealGM in two years talking about their glory days when they held the Big Vanilla Earthquake to 38 points. How many of Duke’s players have we seen in recent years that were unbelievable in college but just average in the pros? Some players are just great college players and that's it. However, every June, some general manager will cave into the fan pressure to draft one of these guys based purely on their college resumes and not based on how they project as an NBA player.

It's an interesting article, but really, you just can't know which guy's going to fit into which category. It mentions the long line of Duke underachievers, but then along comes Carlos Boozer, whom I thought was way overrated in college, and apparently the league did too, since he wasn't picked until the second round. Everyone had him ranked way below Mike Dunleavy Jr...whoops.

What can I say...I just have a thing for Knuckleheads (Artest, and Williams)

8. The “Knucklehead” - The Knucklehead has to be the most frustrating of all the busts, but they certainly are fun to read about. They have the talent that makes scouts drool - the jumper, the handles, and the wrap-around-behind-the-back-bounce-pass, in traffic… left handed to boot. They also have a bio that reads like the cover of Us Weekly. Sometimes it’s a drug problem, sometimes it's the crowd they run with, sometimes it's a pantyless crotch shot taken by the paparazzi, and sometimes it's something simple like crashing your SUV into a parked car while driving drunk, watching porn and giving yourself “the stranger”, followed by getting caught on a security camera trying to bribe people into not calling the police. Of course something that crazy could never actually happen, right? Babysitting a Knucklehead can be a full time job for the team that drafts one. It’s time to hire a good publicist. Promises, here we come.

What can I say...I just have a thing for Knuckleheads (Artest, and Williams)

8. The “Knucklehead” - The Knucklehead has to be the most frustrating of all the busts, but they certainly are fun to read about. They have the talent that makes scouts drool - the jumper, the handles, and the wrap-around-behind-the-back-bounce-pass, in traffic… left handed to boot. They also have a bio that reads like the cover of Us Weekly. Sometimes it’s a drug problem, sometimes it's the crowd they run with, sometimes it's a pantyless crotch shot taken by the paparazzi, and sometimes it's something simple like crashing your SUV into a parked car while driving drunk, watching porn and giving yourself “the stranger”, followed by getting caught on a security camera trying to bribe people into not calling the police. Of course something that crazy could never actually happen, right? Babysitting a Knucklehead can be a full time job for the team that drafts one. It’s time to hire a good publicist. Promises, here we come.